Local agencies are gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, an event that has become a growing concern in Kingston’s University District, Kingston Police say.

Kingston Health Sciences Centre will be staffing a specific zone near the emergency department at Kingston General Hospital. Kingston Police are increasing their presence on Friday and Saturday. Frontenac Paramedic Services and Kingston Fire and Rescue will have additional staff on duty. All this for an event that last year took over Aberdeen Street by noon.

Sgt. Matt Funnell is running Kingston Police’s response to the day that honours Saint Patrick, the primary patron saint of Ireland. Funnell said their response will be a scaled-down version of Homecoming.

“We will do our best to be firm and fair in our enforcement, but we are going to be trying to hold partygoers to account and make sure they do it safely and within the law,” Funnell said.

“It’s still a celebration around St. Patrick’s Day, but the issue is that it’s starting to show the same makeup of a Homecoming. That’s why we’re approaching it like a mini-Homecoming, because we know what we’re up against.”

When revellers dressed in green rapidly filled Aberdeen Street last year, it was safer to close the street all together, Kingston Police said at the time. At 4 p.m., officers walked side by side to reopen it to emergency services and local motorists … if they dared drive down it.

Funnell said that this year they’ll be working with City of Kingston bylaw officers to educate those at the festivities about the city’s impeding nuisance party bylaw. He said they’ll be taking note of those to whom they give warnings.

City council voted unanimously in favour of the bylaw on Feb. 20. The new bylaw, which already exists in many other university towns, targets behaviours such as public intoxication, the unlawful sale of alcohol or controlled substances, damage to public property, excessive noise, large unsanctioned gatherings and public fighting.

Mayor Bryan Paterson said on Tuesday that the bylaw is currently with the provincial government for it to approve the proposed fines. The fines start at a $500 minimum and $10,000 maximum for the first time, going up to $25,000 for subsequent offences.

“In speaking with police, certainly there are a lot of other tools available to them, and there’s a plan in place to have proper enforcement of the other bylaws that are already there,” Paterson said.

The mayor’s hopes for this Saturday is that everyone enjoys themselves but obeys the laws and respects the community.

“That’s always my expectation and it’s my hope that everything goes well,” Paterson said. “I know there have been a lot of actions taken place to really ramp up for an appropriate response to St. Patrick’s Day. It’s true that this has grown a lot in the last few years, so we have to be ready for it.”

Just like at Homecoming, Frontenac Paramedic Services will have one additional ambulance on the road on Friday and Saturday until about 1 p.m., Chief Paul Charbonneau said. For the rest of the afternoon and Saturday night, there will be two additional ambulances on the road.

“We hope that that will help with the call volume,” Charbonneau said, adding that he’s been impressed with the collaboration and the co-operation between Queen’s University and local agencies.

At Homecoming 2017, paramedics reported being abused, with one patient even intentionally urinating on an equipment bag.

“We always ensure that our paramedics understand that their safety is very, very paramount to us,” Charbonneau said. “At the end of the day, if they feel unsafe in situation, they’re going to wait for police … we do training in some aggression and de-escalation and things like that.

“I hope some of the communications [to partygoers] are going to talk about being respectful to first responders. We’re not the bad guys.”

Staff at KGH weren’t treated much better last fall, with Dr. David Messenger, head of the emergency department, tweeting that staff were verbally abused and vomited on. For Saturday, Mike McDonald, executive vice-president of patient care and community partnerships, said the hospital has been rolling out a pilot project of sorts to be proactive.

“We do see an increase in alcohol-related presentations [on St. Patrick’s Day],” McDonald said. “Given that the emergency departments are already busy and overcrowded, we just absorb that activity as we did in the past. So it can hinder our ability to keep wait times down and to deliver safe patient care.”

Rather than flooding the emergency department with patients from the University District, the plan is to open and staff the Same Day Clinic. Located near the ER, the clinic is usually closed on the weekends. Staffing the space will be flexible, depending on how many patient they get.

“A number of doctors, nurses have been booked to support the extra space, but overall staffing numbers will be dictated by the need and number of patients over the weekend,” McDonald said.

Kingston Fire and Rescue Chief Shawn Armstrong said they will have extra staff on call for Saturday. Deputy Chief Neville Murphy added that the department will also have extra members of their Fire Suppression and Emergency Response Division as well as their Fire Prevention and Inspection division on duty.

“We don’t anticipate any abnormal activity, but we have a contingency plan in place,” Murphy said.

Environment Canada forecasts the weather on Saturday to have a high of 0 C and a low of -7 C with a mix of sun and cloud.

Lindsay Winger, assistant dean of support services and community engagement at Queen’s University, said in a statement on Tuesday that the university has been working to encourage responsible drinking behaviours and education.

“For St. Patrick’s Day, we will offer non-alcohol-related alternatives for students, provide opportunities for additional food and water, implement a ‘no guests’ policy in residence through the weekend, and have services in place to help students who have been drinking,” wrote Winger, who is also co-chair of the Queen’s Alcohol Working Group.

“First and foremost, we want students to be safe on St. Patrick’s Day, and with that in mind, encourage them to look out for one another.”